Study Matches Starry Night to July 1889 Sky

A South Korean research team proposes that Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night matches a real sky over Saint-Rémy-de-Provence around July 22, 1889. The researchers aligned the painting’s narrow landscape view and celestial arrangement with a thin crescent moon, Venus, and the Hyades star cluster in Taurus. CONTESTED: Traditional dating: June 1889, based on a letter to Van Gogh's brother. New proposal: July 22, 1889 — team says the June moon would have been too full to match the painting. The traditional placement is about a month earlier than the date the team advances. The letter forms part of the basis for the June timing. The team’s case rests on the moon phase and the positions of Venus and the Hyades.